Of Course He Did

 Fox News: Abbas delays Palestinian elections again, making more than two decades without vote 

Abbas issued a decree Friday pushing Palestinian Legislative Council elections from next month to Sept. 11, 2027, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. Presidential elections, which have not been held since Abbas' 2005 victory, are also scheduled for that date.

Mahmoud Abbas is now in the twenty-second year of his four-year term as President of the Palestinian Authority.

Yep, read that again, I'll wait. 

Looks like he's now going for twenty-three years plus.

There have been no PA elections since 2005.

We can also note that there has not been an election in Gaza since 2006 when Hamas won and there has been no desire for an election, much less a free and fair one, there either.

Very much the standard practice of Muslim "Democracy":  Democracy is like a train - when you get where you want, you get off.

We will note this is in direct contravention of the assurance he gave to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and to French President Macron that he would hold an election in 2026 return for France and Canada recognizing the rather non-existent Palestinian state. Credulous fools and useful idiots, they.

Ah, It's That Kind of Ceasefire Then

A little bit of political double-think going on in this post from CENTCOM:

Yep, it's an Islamic ceasefire - Iran can fire at others, but if you fire at them it is violating the ceasefire.   We've seen these all around the Middle East.

In reality when one side continuously violates the ceasefire by firing at the other side, you do not, in fact, have a ceasefire. 

That the US is accepting the concept that Iran can continue firing missiles at American forces and it is still an "ongoing ceasefire" is a bad sign. 

Apparently For Iran, Ceasefire Doesn't Mean What We Consider Ceasefire To Mean

Often the Arabs and Iranians will say one thing in English for foreign consumption while saying the opposite in their native language. Or say ne thing while acting the opposite.

Right after the ceasefire was announced, Iran launched missiles at both Israel and the gulf states.

Mirror: Iran fires missiles at Israel minutes after Donald Trump's war ceasefire

CNBC:  Gulf countries scramble to intercept missiles hours into U.S.-Iran ceasefire agreement

 It is, of course, possible that the Iranians took ceasefire to mean "No attacks on us, but we can attack others", which tends to be par for the course for the type.

We will see if this was a last-minute barrage so Iran can claim they got the last salvo in, or if the ceasefire breaks down due to continuing Iranian violations.

You Can Hope In One Hand . . .

The Detroit News: Macron hopes his recognition of a Palestinian state will be a landmark contribution to Mideast peace

Desperate to distract attention from his failures domestically in La Belle France, Macron decided to dip into the Middle East.

How'd his recognition announcement work out?  Well, not so good, at least not for anyone but Hamas and Macron's ego:

Politico: France’s recognition of Palestinian state scuttled Gaza truce talks, Rubio says

You mean rewarding a terrorist group after they committed terrorism and then throwing them a lifeline when they were on the ropes doesn't bring them to the bargaining table and lead to a cease fire and end to the fighting?

Sacré bleu! Who could have seen that coming?  Aside from, you know, everybody. 

A Modest Proposal For Taiwan

Taiwan needs to learn from others how to get recognized as an independent state.

In order to get recognition from Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Australia, all of whom do not currently recognize Taiwan, it just needs to do the following:

Invade China, sack and burn the cities of Quanzhou, Putian, and Fuzhou, kill 177,600 mainland Chinese, and take 37,000 mainland Chinese as hostages to achieve the appropriate population ratio needed to get such recognition and then not surrender under any circumstances after China responds.

This seems to be the required process needed in order to get  Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Australia to grant recognition for Taiwan as an independent state, as that seems to be their current criteria for such recognition of states.

Good luck Taiwan!  

Israel Hits Iran

A nuclear-armed Iran is a threat not just to the region, but the world. 

The world's leading sponsor of terrorism, supporting the Houthis, Hamas, Hezbollah, and others, Iran has attacked Israeli and US personnel around the world.

When even the UN finally admits that Iran is on the road to acquiring a bomb, and has been actively hiding its activities from inspectors, it is more than late in the game to stop it.

UN.org: Atomic watchdog says Iran not complying with nuclear safeguards

It's more than overdue that action is taken to stop them from getting a working nuclear device, especially as they have continually worked to enrich uranium beyond the level required for "peaceful" nuclear power and towards the level for a bomb.

 PJ Media: BREAKING: Israel Bombs Iran in Preemptive Strike 

In addition to hitting research sites in Tehran, the main enrichment site at Natanz has reportedly been hit:

Fox News: Israel hits the ‘heart’ of Iran’s nuclear program in Natanz facility strike

Hopefully, the strikes are successful and Iran is setback yet again from its path to nuclear weapons. 

Hamas Rejects Ceasefire Proposal

Hamas' refusal to accept the United State's ceasefire proposal is not unexpected, after all they expect to get bailed out and are taking the statements by Britain, France, Canada, and Germany warning Israel not to win as proof that they will get bailed out and stopped form losing the war they started. 

Yahoo News:  Hamas to reject US Gaza ceasefire plan

BBC: Hamas official says it will reject new US Gaza ceasefire plan backed by Israel

On the upside, Hamas' rejection of the deal, which was quote favorable to it leaves the door open for continued Israeli pressure to get them to come back tto the table. The US-made deal featured yet another lopsided exchange of 10 live and 18 dead Israeli hostages held by Hamas for 1,200 Hamasniks.  This was not a good deal for Israel by any stretch of the imagination.  The deal still left approximately (as we don;t really know if they are alive or not) 10 live Israeli hostages in the hands of Hamas for another 60 days.

Hamas figures it can wait for external pressure on Israel to stop Israel from decisively defeating Hamas, and let Hamas remain to commit more terror attacks in the future.  

Unfortunately, they may just be right.

He's Right, You Know

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy David Bernstein points out reality: When Hating Israel is Your Priority.

Just as Israel rescued two hostages from Rafah, you have various leftists around the world including in the Biden administration pressuring Israel not to continue to attack Hamas.

Now, if only these people claiming to be concerned for humanitarian reasons put as much effort into pressuring Hamas to surrender and end the bloodshed, or at least release all the hostages, that would be great. 

Their pressure on Israel instead emboldens Hamas and makes them think they can outlast the current military operation and have world pressure keep them in power and allow them to repeat October 7 again.

The ICJ Decision - First, About South Africa

Before we even go into the inane decision, which in many ways didn't amount to much but is the camel's nose under the tent so to speak. We should first note that thus case was brought by South Africa.

The same South Africa that after the ICC issued an arrest warrant on Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine, invited Putin to South Africa for the BRICS conference, and had in 2015 failed to arrest Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir under an ICC warrant in June 2015 when he was in South Africa. 

Indeed South Africa under the ANC is busy working on withdrawing from the ICC even now over the Putin warrant. In short, South Africa only cares about the ICC when it can be used as a tool for supporting their allies and their own terrorist-supporting ends.

South Africa under the ANC also seems to be busily practicing genocide against whites in South Africa at his very moment.

In short South Africa probably wasn't the best country to bring such a ridiculous charge given its own issues, its own disdain for the court, and its constant failure to adhere to the court's orders, but commies and terrorists gotta commie and be terrorists, so what can you do?

So, on to the decision in the next post.

Ann Arbor Public Schools Beclowns Itself

Ann Arbor Public Schools sticking it's nose in a rather partisan fashion into international relations of which it has no mandate, authority, or power to do so.

In an anti-Israel way of course, unsurprisingly the board president just happens to be a Muslim Arab and the rest of the progressives on the school board approved the partisan resolution.

The Detroit News: Ann Arbor school district OKs measure calling for cease-fire in Gaza and Israel

Schoolboards are rarely called upon, nor equipped, nor desired nor even smart enough to engage in international relations.   But, that didn't stop the Ann Arbor School Board.

Do note that they amended their resolution only after they had proposed it to at least add a statement about releasing the Israeli hostages so as not to appear completely partisan. Apparently the cause of the conflict - the mass murder and taking of Israelis as hostages was but an afterthought, and a sop to pretend neutrality after they got called out on it.

Most curiously, for a board trying to have international heft and show how caring they are about advocating resolving conflicts to their students,  the Ann Arbor Public School systems has yet to pass any resolutions at all calling for a ceasefire:

a.  Between Russia and Ukraine;

b.  In the Sudan civil war;

c.  In the Myanmar civil war;

d.  In the Syrian civil War;

e.  In the various Islamic-led insurgencies throughout Africa;

f. Nor in any other of the many ongoing conflicts around the world, even where Muslims are the bulk of the victims (or indeed the perpetrators).

Funny that.  I daresay we all know exactly why that is, now don't we?

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Navy Getting Frisky Again

The Detroit News: US ship fires warning shots in encounter with Iranian boats

A group of 13 armed speedboats of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard made “unsafe and unprofessional” high-speed maneuvers toward U.S. Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter fired warning shots when two of the Iranian boats came dangerously close, U.S. officials said.

This is the second incident of warning shots being necessary in the past two months to keep Iranian fast attack boats away from US ships, and 150 yards is letting them get way too close. The Iranian regime is testing for a reaction (or lack of same) from the current administration, not to mention getting practice doing attack runs at US vessels.

The next time the Iranians try this, the warning shots should sink the next fast attack craft that gets too close.  

Those shots still be warning shots, mind you, as the shots will be a warning for the next Iranian attack boat boat contemplating getting too close.

An Offer They Will And Have Refused

To no one's surprise, the Palestinian Authority and other organizations have rejected Trump's peace plan with a thousand nos. The Detroit News: Trump's Mideast plan dismissed by Palestinian advocates in Detroit area

Also to no one's surprise, Rashida Tlaib condemned it right after recently re-tweeting a blood libel about Jews.

More interestingly, Debbie Dingell, inheriting her seat from her husband, also condemned it, which while not completely surprising considering the very large Arab population in her district, it was still interesting to see as her objections showed she was just repeating Pali talking points.

Being a deal that required the Palis to actually uphold their obligations and make concessions, just as the Israelis made some major concessions, it wouldn't work.

Because the peace plan reflected reality and didn't allow the Arabs to realize their rejectionist fantasy to drive the Jews into the sea, it was a non-starter and they rejected out of hand.

In short, Trump just again highlighted that it's not Israel that's the obstacle to peace in the region, but the Palis intransigence and refusal to negotiate in good faith for peace rather than continuing rejecting Israel's existence.

PLO wants Palestinian State to be Judenrein

USA Today: PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews

The Palestine Liberation Organization's ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews.

Note, not free of Israelis, but Jews, period.

Amazing that they are finally saying in English what they have been stating in Arabic all this time.

And, they and their apologists claim with a straight face that Israel is an "apartheid state".

The palestinian Arabs have a history of terrorism, corruption, anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.

Such lovely people, let's give them a state.

Farrakhan While Defending his Benefactor Gaddafi Lets His Mask Slip Yet Again

Poor Calypso Louie.

He was doing so well making the useful idiots of the world believe he had given up his anti-Semitic bent. Then he had to go off and blame the Jews for the unrest in Libya.

From Newsmax:

Farrakhan: 'Satanic Jews' Pushing US Into War

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan said Jews and Zionists are "trying to push the US into war" and are a cover for Satan, at the group's annual meeting near Chicago on Tuesday.

“President Obama," Farrakhan said, "if you allow the Zionists to push you, to mount a military offensive against Gaddafi and you go in and kill him and his sons as you did with Saddam Hussein and his sons, I’m warning you this is a Libyan problem, let the Libyans solve their problem among themselves.” Farrakhan called Muammar Gaddafi "my brother" and "my friend."

He also accused American Zionists of attempting to push Israel into war with Iran, adding that "Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system."

I understand how sad he is. After all losing a long-standing patron is always painful.

Gaddafi funneled Farakhan and the NOI millions if not billions of dollars from his oil revenues, and that loss will sting.

In addition, in 1996 Gadaffi gave Farrakhan the coveted Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights which came with a $250,00.00 award. Reading the list of winners, this prize is an award that confirms the award recipient as either a human rights violator or a useful idiot, with the very occasional decent person thrown in for cover. Not too shabby huh?

In other words, Farrakhan was Gaddafi's bitch.

Farrakhan is continuing to try to protect his benefactor so the funds can keep coming his way.

Farrakhan also gave perhaps the understatement of the year in regards to the uprising in his speech at the NOI convention as a pathetic attempts to defend his meal ticket he said

no leader has been loved by 100 percent of his people.

Wow. After getting millions and millions of dollars from Gaddafi the best he can do in his favor is blame the Jews and do an underwhelming statement along the lines of "nobody's perfect" to protect his sugar daddy? Gaddafi got screwed on this investment.

So we can understand Farrakhan is upset that it looks like his Gaddafi-duck gravy train is coming to an end and he went looking for his convenient and popular scapegoat. Now he's gonna have to really work at it yet again to make the useful idiots think he's not an anti-Semite.

The Politicians, always budgeting for the last war...

Remeber when the F-22 contract was reduced to 187 aircraft on the basis that that type of aircraft was unecessary for the low intensity conflicts of today?

The numbers changed when Obama's Defense Secretary Gates changed the prior defense doctrine of the US from being able to fight two major regional wars at once to only being ready to fight one major regional conflict.

This lead to costs savings as less military equipment and manpower was needed, whoihc let obama spend more money domestically.

For example, the F-22 program was reduced by Gates from 243 to 187 aircraft, considered enough for one major conflict. This of course reduces the number of aircraft available if needed as you can't just reopen a production line and crank them out on an on-call basis.

Now its starting to look like we'll need more aircraft.

Pentagon pours cold water on no-fly zone

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House Appropriations defense subcommittee that the U.S. military could establish a no-fly zone over Libya, but cautioned that doing so would first require widespread air strikes across that nation.

“If it’s ordered, we can do it,” Gates said. But, he added, it would be “a big operation in a big country.”

Establishing control of Libyan air space would “start with attacks to destroy” Libyan air defense systems, Gates said. That kind of assault would require more U.S. military aircraft than “you would find on a single aircraft carrier.”

............

Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) asked Gates several questions about establishing control of Libya’s air space, but added that he was not endorsing such an action. Still, Frelinghuysen noted, “there is a perception that we are the only ones who can do it.”

With so many fighter jets involved in other conflicts, the needed additional jets would have to be redeployed, Pentagon officials said. Another option would be to accelerate the deployment of the USS George H.W. Bush, set to sail in three weeks from Norfolk, Va., officials said.

Looks like we're getting a little tight on aircraft availability hmm? And this is just for a local uprising against a tin-pot dictator with a suspended NBC warfare program, but a dictator with the potential for some NBC nasties nonetheless.

What happens when we have to face more than one major regional conflict, or as now lots of minor-but-serious regional conflicts?

We're already scrambling for resources to deal with this outbreak, can we handle the next with what we've got?

Perhaps a defense strategy seeking military cost savings for increased spending domestic programs based on a prognstication that all future wars will be low intensity conflicts was a bit over-optimistic?

Obama delays as Iran builds nukes and the delivery systems for them.

On May 18, Obama says he wants progress with Iran by year's end

Iran's Response Today:
Iran says it tests missile, Israel within range.

So nice of Obama to not only give the Iranians a year to develop a nuclear weapon (and some long range solid fuel missiles to deliver them on) before he gets serious but to announce his intention to give them a year to accomplish their goals.

So much for that good ol' Hope and Change.

Change? What change? This administration wants to forget about the world while it reshapes the United State's economy and society in its own far left image.

Hope? As in - Is there any hope the Obama administration will get serious on major international problems and develops a workable strategy for dealing with them? There's been no real strategy for the Middle East enunciated by the Obama administration -- aside from:

A. its current wrongheaded, outdated and fundamentally flawed State-Department and arabist driven concept that the secret to success in the Middle East is to put pressure on Israel while mollycoddling terrorist and dictatorial regimes. Or is this strategy Obama just trying to get Israel to "take one (nuke) for the team?" and;

B. Withdrawing from Iraq (eventually) and closing Guantanamo (maybe) and not doing anything the Republican administration did with regards to national security (or maybe he will, because it is A-OK when Democrats do it).

Palestinians may be in Civil War. But it's not a Civil War yet!

Finally the MSM and others are kinda-sort-maybe calling the fighting between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza a civil war. mainly saying that "Gaza is sliding into Civil war", or "Sky News - Gaza Descending Into Civil War" or "Palestinians in Gaza nearing civil war"

Never mind that the shooting, bombing and internecine squabbling has been going on for months between the two parties, interrupted only by the occasional rocket launching or terrorist attack on Israel.

Seems a bit out of a Monty Python skit -

Israeli - Here's a Civil War between Fatah and Hamas

Hamas/Fatah > I'm not a civil war yet"

Reporter = What?

Israeli - Nothing, here's your story.

Hamas/Fatah > I'm not a civil war.

Reporter = 'Ere! 'E says 'e's not a civil war!

Israeli - Yes he is.

Hamas/Fatah > I'm not!

Reporter = 'E isn't?

Israeli - Well... he will be soon-- he's been shooting and bombing at 'imself for weeks already

Hamas/Fatah > I'm getting better!

Israeli - No you're not, you'll be a civil war in a moment.

Reporter = I can't call 'im a Civil War like that! It's against regulations!

Hamas/Fatah > I don't want to be reported in the papers as a civil war....

Israeli - Oh, don't be such a baby, when you're not trying to kill us, you're killin' each other at a record pace.

Reporter = I can't report 'im as a civil war, they're Palestinians ya know

Hamas/Fatah > I feel fine!

Israeli - Well do us a favor and accurately report it as a civil war.

Reporter = I can't, there's only Arabs involved, journalistic standards!

Israeli - Can you hang around a couple of minutes? He won't be long to be a full blown civil war.

Reporter = No gotta get to Iraq, there's a civil war there and Americans are involved ya know.

Israeli - Well, when's your next round?

Reporter = Thursday.

Hamas/Fatah > I think I'll go for a walk....

Israeli - You're not fooling anyone, you know-- (shooting in the distance)(to Reporter) Look, isn't there something you can do...?

(more shooting in the distance)

Hamas/Fatah > I feel happy! I feel happy!

(lots more shooting in the distance)

Reporter: Gaza descends into civil warA supremacy struggle in the Gaza Strip is steadily escalating into civil war, Palestinian leaders have admitted.

Israeli - Ah. Close enough, thanks very much.

Reporter= Not at all. See you on Thursday!

Still backing the losers

Guess who is in mourning for Saddam?

Yep, you guessed it: Palestinians mourn execution of their ally, Saddam

Though much of the world regarded him as a tyrant, Saddam Hussein was mourned by Palestinians Saturday as a generous patron who remained one of their staunchest allies -- right up until the moment of his death.

Saddam had rejected peace with Israel, sent money to the families of suicide bombers....

There was at least one parade in his honor in Gaza, where some Palestinians displayed a poster with his image next to that of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

During the first Gulf War in 1991, Saddam attacked Israel in a failed ploy to force his Arab brethren to abandon the U.S.-led coalition arrayed against him and join Iraq in fighting the Jewish state. As Saddam's Scud missiles flew overhead en route to Israel, Palestinians chanted: "Beloved Saddam, strike Tel Aviv."

He further endeared himself to the Palestinians during the recent uprising against Israel by giving $25,000 to the family of each suicide bomber and $10,000 for each Palestinian killed in fighting. The stipends totaled an estimated $35 million.

Saddam's support for the Palestinians -- whose cause is deeply popular with Arabs throughout the Middle East -- was at least partially aimed at cultivating grass-roots support for his regime.

Saddam's downfall -- his defeat by America, his capture in a filthy hole, his conviction and his execution -- dismayed Palestinians.

They just never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity, and they never miss an opportunity to back a loser.